BMW Group Czech Republic has successfully sold a unique i8 Roadster 4 Elements art car by Milan Kunc, fetching 2,100,000 Czech Koruna (over $92,000). The profits will go to The Ocean Cleanup, an organization working on cleaning the world ocean of plastic waste.
The car itself hit the spotlight a year ago. Its livery depicts the four classical elements of Nature: water, fire, air, and earth. The floral ornament and the butterfly on the hood are a metaphor for ‘power transformation’, the wind generator on the right symbolizes the transition to the use of clean energy, and the fish and crustaceans on the left remind us that the humanity is responsible for survival or extinction of certain species. The space scenery at the rear end shows the Earth as a part of the Universe as a whole.
The unique roadster used to occupy an exhibition stand at the BMW Prague showroom and later the BMW Museum in Munich, Germany, until an anonymous collector purchased it.
The BMW i8 comes powered by a hybrid powertrain based on a 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine. The output of the system amounts to 374 hp (279 kW), and the torque rises as high as 570 Nm (420 lb-ft). Getting from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) is a matter of 4.4 seconds.